A story on the radio this morning got me thinking about the practice of wearing letter jackets in (American) high school to show what activities you're in. At the time (class of 1997) I thought the jacket to be a waste of money and something that I wouldn't care about in a few years anyway, though I earned a couple letters for JROTC drill team; this opinion has not changed in the intervening 16 years.

I suspect but have no proof that such jackets are more important to those who didn't go on to college after graduation and/or had no plans to do so in high school.

By the time I got my letters in track I was so disgusted with the inside politics of the whole thing that I never bothered to get the jacket. And yes, in my small town, letter jackets were the currency of respect among those who left high school to bend metal.

If the Earth were flat, cats would have pushed everything off of it by now.

By the time I got my letters in track I was so disgusted with the inside politics of the whole thing that I never bothered to get the jacket. And yes, in my small town, letter jackets were the currency of respect among those who left high school to bend metal.

Pretty much this. Lettered in wrestling and had an academic letter every semester possible. Never got the jacket though.

My high school didn't have letters for the Comp Sci or Chess clubs. (Yes, I was *that* kid! ).

I suspect a lot of us here are that kid.

<yorkshire>Luxury.</yorkshire> We didn't have any such clubs in my high school. The nerds had to choose debate and/or band. The odd thing is that the middle school had a science club (I was a member) but the high school didn't.

<yorkshire>Luxury.</yorkshire> We didn't have any such clubs in my high school. The nerds had to choose debate and/or band. The odd thing is that the middle school had a science club (I was a member) but the high school didn't.

That's because they had real science classes in high school. At least that's my take on the matter.

I lettered three years in football. It was such a point of pride for me that I lettered as a sophomore. I joined the Letterman's Club at my high school. Had a blast. We were service oriented, but we were issued paddles (not for canoeing) for working at basketball games. That being said, I went on to college and grad school. But those were some happy memories and I've got the jacket still in a closet somewhere. I'll probably pull it out and bring it to my 20 year reunion and I'll show it to my kids when they ask about what I was like then.

I lettered in Band and Soccer in high school along with graduating with honors. Granted, doing that in college would have been more impressive, or at a larger school, but they were things I wanted to accomplish.

We got the jackets, or letters, for free at my school, so I didn't have to buy them. I got rid of the jacket long ago, but I may still have the letters somewhere.

We didn't have a computer club high school. There was our Industrial Arts program which was kind of like a club.

True Story; Vrock and I were members and actually CO and XO (respectively) of a National Championship Drill Team in college. Besting schools like Texas A&M (our arch-nemesis but with much respect), all the military academies, VMI, Citadel, Florida, Norwich, etc. etc. Ahh the memories.

(he's probably gonna kill me for saying that)

(\_/) (O.o)(''')(''') Watch out for evil Terra-Tron; He Does not like you!

My high school in Farm Town USA did not have letters for anything other than sports, and only if you played on the varsity team. Freshman and JV teams didn't count. I played baseball freshman and sophomore years, and then gave that up to pursue trombone and then trumpet lessons to get an early jump on what I was sure was going to be an instrumental music education career. So no letters for me, though I did go on to college. It seemed like everyone at Bradley did their very best to separate themselves from their high schools (most of which were in the north and west suburbs of Chicago, or down here in the Peoria area) and didn't wear them on campus, if they had them.

I saw no value in it and still see no value. Doesn't mean other people feel that way, I'm sure.

At my high school, at least, you were awarded a letter (first initial letter of the school, a large block letter) for year-long participation in certain extracurricular activities like sports or debate. The expectation was that you'd purchase a "letter jacket" of approved design from a certain store, affix the letter plus any additional activity-awarded decorations, and then wear it to school & possibly elsewhere. Our jackets also featured the owner's last name and the last two digits of the year they expected to graduate, along with the school's mascot.

It was very common for male jacket-owners to give it to their steady girlfriend at the time & for her to wear it. I don't recall any examples of female jacket-owners having their boyfriends wear theirs.

The first poll that was put up on the front page over a decade ago (to test the poll feature of the main site) had a cheese option, and it has been tradition to include a cheese option in forum polls ever since. IIRC many of the older front page polls included a cheese option too, but those pre-date the current front page poll system and AFAIK are no longer accessible.

I got an Honors letter. Couldn't afford the jacket to put it on, but I still have the letter in a storage box somewhere.

I wouldn't have worn it anyway. Nerds were socially inferior to jocks in small-town America, so wearing an honors letter jacket would have made one an easy target for further public humiliation.

"No I don't want the Ask toolbar! No I don't want Bing as my default search! No I don't want to make Chrome my default browser!""Good grief, man! WHAT are you trying to install on that poor computer?""Antivirus."

That effect is not limited to small-town America. Unless you attend a nerd school it is pretty universal.

Ah, true.. I just thought in bigger schools it might have been easier to disappear in the crowd. I have learned to love the anonymity of city life.

But back to the point, jocks were "cool" in letter jackets, band members were accepted (and even the nerdy ones got a free pass with a Band letter), but Honors was just nothing to brag about.

"No I don't want the Ask toolbar! No I don't want Bing as my default search! No I don't want to make Chrome my default browser!""Good grief, man! WHAT are you trying to install on that poor computer?""Antivirus."

My high school in Farm Town USA did not have letters for anything other than sports, and only if you played on the varsity team. Freshman and JV teams didn't count.

I thought that was the way it worked. Being on the varsity team meant you got a letter. Band and choir got letters if you were a senior and had participated for four years.

just brew it! wrote:

That effect is not limited to small-town America. Unless you attend a nerd school it is pretty universal.

kvndoom wrote:

But back to the point, jocks were "cool" in letter jackets, band members were accepted (and even the nerdy ones got a free pass with a Band letter), but Honors was just nothing to brag about.

Or you attended a school with an oddly high concentration of kids whose parents were engineers which kind of blurred the lines. There wasn't really a "class" system there. It's was a pretty laid back place, and we're all still pretty tight. Being from there is kind of a bond.

Around my high school letter jackets were currency of popularity, which did not include me, and moreover a men's style letter jacket was something like $120...in late 199x dollars. My parents sure weren't going to give me that kind of money for a bit of ephemeral gimcrackery, and the paltry wage I made working weekends in fast food wasn't going to pay for that and my other hobbies, so I filed my tennis and academic letters in a box and called it a life.

We didn't have letters or jackets or rings or proms. None of the highschools did. My only familiarity with any of that was seeing them on "Happy Days" and I assumed they had died out with poodle skirts and ducktail haircuts. I was surprised when I got to college in the US and discovered they still existed (even more surprised that Fraternities and Sororities were still common on campuses, as I only knew them from "Animal House" and assumed they'd mostly petered out in the 70s).